China will import a record 24 million tonnes of corn this marketing year and use a surprisingly large amount of wheat and rice for livestock feed, said USDA economists on Tuesday. “China’s demand for feedstuffs continues to rise as its swine herd recovers from African swine fever (ASF),” said USDA in its monthly Grain; World Markets and Trade circular.
At 24 million tonnes, corn imports would be triple last year’s 7.6 million tonnes, according to USDA data. “China’s domestic corn prices continue to be at a premium to wheat, encouraging greater wheat feed use,” said the WASDE report, which raised the USDA estimate of wheat imports by China during 2020/21 for the sixth month in a row to 10 million tonnes “on a continued robust pace.” It would be the highest import tally in more than 25 years. France has been the largest supplier.
Wheat is a food grain, consumed by people for the most part, but imported wheat is lower in price than corn at present. so it is an alternative to corn in livestock rations. The USDA estimated 30 million tonnes of wheat, about 10 million tonnes more than usual, will be used as animal feed in China this year.
“Though rice is not widely used in feed due to its higher price, some feed mills in China are also beginning to use it if feed rations,” said the Grain circular. “China has been auctioning older stocks of rice from state reserves at low prices, recently targeting auctions specifically for feed use.” Rice is mixed with wheat for a livestock feed and likely being used for poultry.
China has the world’s largest hog inventory and also is the largest pork consumer. Various estimates say China lost from 40 to 55 percent of its hog inventory to ASF, a contagious disease that is often fatal to pigs. Several months ago, it began to rebuild its domestic herd.